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STUDIO: Lionsgate
MSRP: $11.99
RATED:
Not rated
RUNNING TIME: 113 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:


The Pitch

X-Men cartoon adaptation #43295064-B

The Humans

Steve Blum, Fred Tatasciore, Jim Ward, Nolan North, Kari Wahlgren, Danielle Judovits, Tom Kane, Liam O’Brien, Yuri Lowenthal, Roger Craig Smith.

The Nutshell

In this latest adaptation of the popular Marvel comic, Wolverine is now the leader of the mutant superhero team while Charles Xavier is in a mysterious coma, but communicating telepathically from 20 years in the future.  Many of the old characters, both hero and villain, are given somewhat new spins in this slightly more dystopian incarnation where mutants are the hunted by a government agency called the Mutant Response Division (MRD), thanks to the Mutant Registration Act.  This is a five-episode offering with guests that include the Hulk, Gambit, Nick Fury, Spiral and Mojo.




The Lowdown


I suppose that anything that keeps the superhero franchises fresh, new and on the air for the kiddies is good, considering that when I was a kiddie, I lived for shows like Superfriends, Batman and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.  On that note, Wolverine and the X-Men is just the latest installment for the mutants, this time with everyone’s favorite feral mutie as the official lead character.  I’ve only seen these five episodes so far out of the new show, and it’s fine, again skewing to the younger spectrum of fans by Gen-X-ing many of the characters, just as they did in X-Men: Evolution.  The twist for this version is that there’s a season-long arc brought about by a mysterious explosion at the X-Mansion in which both Jean Grey and Professor X disappear, leaving Wolverine to attempt to regroup the X-Men and rebuild the school in order to avoid a bleak future where Master Mold and the Sentinels are in control of humanity.

These five episodes are directly after the three-part series premiere, “Hindsight,” and feature Wolverine in action against various adversaries such as the Shadow King, Gambit, the MRD, Nick Fury, The Hulk, the Wendigo and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.  Emma Frost has come aboard the X-Men in order to utilize Cerebro in the absence of Xavier and Jean.  The animation for the show is pretty good, and more in line with the style of X-Men: Evolution than the ’90s’ X-Men.  If there’s one issue us older fans might have is that these are now becoming retreads of retreads of the stories we’re used to.  The big season arc, disappearance of Jean and the utilization of Emma Frost will take you exactly where you thought it would.  And the “Wolverine vs. the Hulk” episode is the umpteenth use of that match up.  Hell it was done just earlier this year in Hulk vs.  Still they do manage to at least attempt to give their own take on the stories in a new and different way. 


This is the follow-up to the Wolverine and the X-Men: Heroes Return Trilogy.  However, I would never buy a smattering of episodes such as this as the studios for these cartoons are known to put out.  If the cartoon is worth having, it’s worth having all the episodes in a season.  So wait for the inevitable Season 1 set.

The Package

Animation and transfer are clean and crisp.  Audio is also suitable.  There are surprisingly five commentaries by writer / producers Craig Kyle, Greg Johnson and Christopher Yost.  Other than that, just some random trailers..

5.8 out of 10